GAMD: 5-April-2022, Macau
Tuesday, 5 April 2022 23:30![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elusivekoriginal post here, x-posted from ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
glimpseatmyday
Hi again! Today's GAMD has happily fallen on a Public Holiday here, the Cheng Ming Fesitval 清明節. It's something like a Chinese-version All Souls' Day, where people go "up to the mountains" (Chinese cemeteries are usually on mountains or hills) and clean up the ancestor's graves or headstones and pay respects. Being of Western heritage, my family does not observe this festival, so it's just another holiday for me.
But although it's a holiday for me, my Sis still needs to work (works at a shelter - the doggies need people to feed them every day!), so, we still had our early morning wake up call. Even the cat was having an issue with the bright morning sun LOL!
As always, the doggies get their morning walkies and breakfast...
When the doggies are settled, it's my turn for breakfast and getting myself ready for the day.
I had a small activity in mind for today. The other day, I bought this book, ENGEKI QUEST, it's a... quest book, and written for Macau. There are prompts as you follow along the instructions of the book, and I thought I'd give it a go. I almost decided to abandon it this morning, because my monthly friend came for a visit, and I'm usually miserable on the first day. But then I thought, I'm going to be miserable at home anyway, might as well go out and see if it will distract me.
So, off I went. There are 4 main starting points. I decided to go to the one nearest my home, as I was banking on the end of the quest being near home too.
So, we start at the A-Ma Temple 媽閣廟 (Ma-Kok Temple). Why is it that every time I go to a Chinese Temple, I am somehow always indisposed one way or another? (Not supposed to visit Chinese temples during your monthlies). I read the book along the way, and it prompts me to go towards the green building.
When there are crossroads, the book is pretty accurate with choices - to the left, or to the right. Though, it starts to get annoying when you have to go back and forth, from paragraph 60 to 201 then off to 134... and then there are prompts where you have to find an image or something, and find the number from there.
I keep thinking, "What if that post/image/graffiti is removed? Then the book will be redundant!" But ohwell. It was published a couple weeks ago, so I should be safe! I partially went back part of the way going home... Even though it was cool and breezy, but the sun was out and proper by then, so I had to stop to get my hat out of the bag, and had a short water break. The public restroom at this Moorish Barracks was pretty clean, so I went ahead and used it too.
When it's these UNESCO posts, I'm not too worried. It's there to stay. As I have already mentioned, graffities would be tough!
The cool thing with following this book was... although this is MY AREA, I'm from this area, I know this area pretty well, but there are certain streets or alleys that I've never walked into - I know I won't get lost, I can make educated guesses on where a road will lead to, but in my daily life, there 's not need to go down a particular road, and this book has made me go down such roads, and I'm seeing things I've never seen before.
At one point, the book brought me to the market area, and it was PACKED. As today is the Cheng Ming Festival, a lot of flower ladies opened up shop and were selling flowers. There was also a queue at the BBQ Char-Siu (BBQ Pork) takeaway. Probably people making preparations for the visit up the mountains.
Nearing the end of the "Ma-Kok" route, it indicated to this graffiti. It states "Area 51", and paragraph 51 says something about going into the patio and seeing some ivy and a clothesline, which I did, but then the book sort of says there's a lot of shops (it was empty?) and that maybe in future we can revisit with better technology (technology for...?) and then it says this route ends here. I thought for a bit and I think the ending was a play with the name of the patio itself. The patio is called Patio of Illusion.
It was still early when I completed this route (just before 11am) but I was exhausted because I underestimated the sun, and I was feeling steadily more miserable, so I decided to head back home. There are 3 other such routes in the book, I can do them another day.
The parents decided to go have lunch out at the mall that houses the local IKEA, so off we went. Mom was thinking that as everyone's supposed to be going up the mountains, that the mall would be empty, but she was dreaming. She seems to have forgotten that some people, like her, like to anticipate the festivities, meaning, in order to avoid the crowds, they may have already gone to the cemetery earlier. The atrium looks empty on this photo but I assure you, for all the restaurants that were opened, each and everyone of them had a queue. In the end we decided to eat at a food court instead.
And then we had a quick scroll through IKEA. The IKEA here is not like the IKEA I've read about, where you get confused, and if you wanted to get something, you'd have to go all the way back to where you've started. The IKEA here in Macau is a wide open space, no forced routing, and you can just roam. I got a charging cable, and then treated the parents to soft ice cream.
After that, we went back home, I had a short power nap, woke up feeling worse than before LOL (as usual) and tended to the plants. Since everyone liked the orchid in my last GAMD, here's the orchid again, fully opened, and the other orchid I have that I am trying to keep it on that planter thing. Doesn't look too good though, the other side of the planter is all moldy. I need to untie the orchid, repot it, and the planter can only be for moss or the like, I think.
I sat back in my bed, I already had 2 dogs up on my bed, but suddenly even Frankie came wanting a bit of a snuggle time. I take the chance to do a bit of reading, because this book is just going so slowly for me! I have to move on! That, and the next book I have lined up... I loaned it from the library, and I need to return it tomorrow already, but I'm going to extend the loan online... then I have to START READING THAT BOOK!
Soon it's 6pm and the doggies have their dinner. When Sis arrives home, dinner is served. Doggies go out for their night walk. These are the doggies on the opposite dog park, mostly Standard Poodles. They are HUGE!
Back home, it's just killing time till I have to get to bed. Was just whiling the time away on some games on my mobile, and then shower, night routine. Just closing this off before I'll switch off the lights for bed. In case someone is curious, top left is Walkr, top right is Livly, and bottom is Guardian Tales.
And that's it for today! It's another work day tomorrow. See you next time!
glimpseatmydayHi again! Today's GAMD has happily fallen on a Public Holiday here, the Cheng Ming Fesitval 清明節. It's something like a Chinese-version All Souls' Day, where people go "up to the mountains" (Chinese cemeteries are usually on mountains or hills) and clean up the ancestor's graves or headstones and pay respects. Being of Western heritage, my family does not observe this festival, so it's just another holiday for me.
But although it's a holiday for me, my Sis still needs to work (works at a shelter - the doggies need people to feed them every day!), so, we still had our early morning wake up call. Even the cat was having an issue with the bright morning sun LOL!
As always, the doggies get their morning walkies and breakfast...
When the doggies are settled, it's my turn for breakfast and getting myself ready for the day.
I had a small activity in mind for today. The other day, I bought this book, ENGEKI QUEST, it's a... quest book, and written for Macau. There are prompts as you follow along the instructions of the book, and I thought I'd give it a go. I almost decided to abandon it this morning, because my monthly friend came for a visit, and I'm usually miserable on the first day. But then I thought, I'm going to be miserable at home anyway, might as well go out and see if it will distract me.
So, off I went. There are 4 main starting points. I decided to go to the one nearest my home, as I was banking on the end of the quest being near home too.
So, we start at the A-Ma Temple 媽閣廟 (Ma-Kok Temple). Why is it that every time I go to a Chinese Temple, I am somehow always indisposed one way or another? (Not supposed to visit Chinese temples during your monthlies). I read the book along the way, and it prompts me to go towards the green building.
When there are crossroads, the book is pretty accurate with choices - to the left, or to the right. Though, it starts to get annoying when you have to go back and forth, from paragraph 60 to 201 then off to 134... and then there are prompts where you have to find an image or something, and find the number from there.
I keep thinking, "What if that post/image/graffiti is removed? Then the book will be redundant!" But ohwell. It was published a couple weeks ago, so I should be safe! I partially went back part of the way going home... Even though it was cool and breezy, but the sun was out and proper by then, so I had to stop to get my hat out of the bag, and had a short water break. The public restroom at this Moorish Barracks was pretty clean, so I went ahead and used it too.
When it's these UNESCO posts, I'm not too worried. It's there to stay. As I have already mentioned, graffities would be tough!
The cool thing with following this book was... although this is MY AREA, I'm from this area, I know this area pretty well, but there are certain streets or alleys that I've never walked into - I know I won't get lost, I can make educated guesses on where a road will lead to, but in my daily life, there 's not need to go down a particular road, and this book has made me go down such roads, and I'm seeing things I've never seen before.
At one point, the book brought me to the market area, and it was PACKED. As today is the Cheng Ming Festival, a lot of flower ladies opened up shop and were selling flowers. There was also a queue at the BBQ Char-Siu (BBQ Pork) takeaway. Probably people making preparations for the visit up the mountains.
Nearing the end of the "Ma-Kok" route, it indicated to this graffiti. It states "Area 51", and paragraph 51 says something about going into the patio and seeing some ivy and a clothesline, which I did, but then the book sort of says there's a lot of shops (it was empty?) and that maybe in future we can revisit with better technology (technology for...?) and then it says this route ends here. I thought for a bit and I think the ending was a play with the name of the patio itself. The patio is called Patio of Illusion.
It was still early when I completed this route (just before 11am) but I was exhausted because I underestimated the sun, and I was feeling steadily more miserable, so I decided to head back home. There are 3 other such routes in the book, I can do them another day.
The parents decided to go have lunch out at the mall that houses the local IKEA, so off we went. Mom was thinking that as everyone's supposed to be going up the mountains, that the mall would be empty, but she was dreaming. She seems to have forgotten that some people, like her, like to anticipate the festivities, meaning, in order to avoid the crowds, they may have already gone to the cemetery earlier. The atrium looks empty on this photo but I assure you, for all the restaurants that were opened, each and everyone of them had a queue. In the end we decided to eat at a food court instead.
And then we had a quick scroll through IKEA. The IKEA here is not like the IKEA I've read about, where you get confused, and if you wanted to get something, you'd have to go all the way back to where you've started. The IKEA here in Macau is a wide open space, no forced routing, and you can just roam. I got a charging cable, and then treated the parents to soft ice cream.
After that, we went back home, I had a short power nap, woke up feeling worse than before LOL (as usual) and tended to the plants. Since everyone liked the orchid in my last GAMD, here's the orchid again, fully opened, and the other orchid I have that I am trying to keep it on that planter thing. Doesn't look too good though, the other side of the planter is all moldy. I need to untie the orchid, repot it, and the planter can only be for moss or the like, I think.
I sat back in my bed, I already had 2 dogs up on my bed, but suddenly even Frankie came wanting a bit of a snuggle time. I take the chance to do a bit of reading, because this book is just going so slowly for me! I have to move on! That, and the next book I have lined up... I loaned it from the library, and I need to return it tomorrow already, but I'm going to extend the loan online... then I have to START READING THAT BOOK!
Soon it's 6pm and the doggies have their dinner. When Sis arrives home, dinner is served. Doggies go out for their night walk. These are the doggies on the opposite dog park, mostly Standard Poodles. They are HUGE!
Back home, it's just killing time till I have to get to bed. Was just whiling the time away on some games on my mobile, and then shower, night routine. Just closing this off before I'll switch off the lights for bed. In case someone is curious, top left is Walkr, top right is Livly, and bottom is Guardian Tales.
And that's it for today! It's another work day tomorrow. See you next time!
no subject
Date: 2022-04-05 23:17 (UTC)